I make no bones about elevating EdReports as a gold standard for curriculum reviews. When the organization was founded in 2015, educators and leaders looking for high-quality instructional materials had limited resources for help, a gap that has clearly since been bridged. And I’ll even admit my bias in getting to know several EdReports’ leaders and a few educator reviewers – all individuals deeply rooted in classroom and school experience, a thirst for learning and improving, and a common goal to see more teachers with access to quality materials and students with access to quality instruction.

I’ll also admit that no curriculum review — or reviewer — is perfect. This is a process that will never be all things to all people, as I’ve written about before. In fact, when CurriculumHQ set out a few years ago to create a graphic depicting the ideal curriculum review, adoption, and implementation process, we were quickly humbled into realizing that is not a thing. There are elements that schools, districts, and states ideally follow, but the process demands local context and customization. And context – like the education field – changes constantly.

All of this is why I find it so promising that EdReports’ new strategic plan builds on its core values of independence, transparency, and educator expertise; tackles evolving challenges head-on; and sets a smart course for the organization’s next decade of work. After spending the last ten years establishing a baseline of reviews and moving the country – and the publishing market – toward more transparency around and availability of quality curricula, EdReports is now expanding into Pre-K, exploring new usage and quality signals, and committing to sharing publicly what is changing, when, and why.

We need EdReports — just like we need the Center for Education Market Dynamics, Rivet Education, TNTP, Instruction Partners, the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, and many others I’ve featured on this blog over the past several years. No one organization supporting high-quality materials provides the soup-to-nuts assists that states, districts, and schools need to improve instruction. But the field is better off with the foundational expertise groups like EdReports offer, which can be customized to local context.

So here’s to the next decade of advocacy for high-quality instruction, grounded in strong materials that respond to the realities of today’s teachers and classrooms and, ultimately, support all types of learners across this country.